Welcome to the Forum on World Class IT podcast series, a collection of exclusive interviews with Chief Information Officers and other IT industry thought leaders. Learn from the experts on how best to establish a truly World Class IT organization.

Podcast tags Archives: Mobile Computing

In this interview, Jay Levine discusses principles one, People, two, Infrastructure, and four, IT & Business Partnerships, of World Class IT with Metis Strategy. Some of the topics discussed include

Jay’s priorities of focusing in the near term on addressing government mandates while in the longer term preparing his company for the shift to a business to consumer environment

The dramatic changes to the health insurance supply chain, and how regulatory measures are driving significant technology modernization and transformation

How Blue Cross Blue Shield of MN is approaching the uncertainty of legal regulations in health reform, as well as the bets the company is making regardless of regulation

How, when taking on a new CIO position, one must commit to obsessive learning about a new industry while also identifying parallels with other industry experience

The necessity to run a non-profit like a for-profit business, while heavily appreciating the community-oriented mission of the company

How the health insurance industry lags others in its adoption of commodity labor and software solution, and how this will be a necessary shift in approach in order to meet the increasing time to market demands of a business to consumer market

Eye on the trends: Mobile devices’ ability to provide rich data anywhere, cloud computing playing a role in agility, and the ability for Software as a Service (SaaS) to enable transformational efforts in a shorter time period

In this interview, David Johns, the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Owens Corning, a world leader in building materials and composite systems and solutions, discusses World Class IT principle two, Infrastructure, principle three, Project and Portfolio Management, principle four, IT-Business Partnerships, and principle five, External Partnerships, with Metis Strategy. Some of the topics discussed include:

Leveraging shared services at Owens Corning

Global outsourcing for scalability, expertise, and cost control

IT’s emphasis on driving revenue

The “Bring Your Own Device” policy at Owens Corning

Innovation from the global IT team and increasingly tech-savvy workforce

Eye on the trends: How virtualization and cloud computing enable mobility, drive cost savings, and expedite deployment capabilities; the productivity gains from video; and consumerization of IT and David’s prediction that IT may eventually no longer provide devices to a company’s employees

In this interview, Bill Bradley, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of CenturyLink, discusses World Class IT Principle One, People and Principle Four, IT-Business Partnerships. Some of the topics discussed include:

His organization, CenturyLink, and his role within the organization

His multi-decade tenure at the organization, and how IT’s contribution to the organization has changed over that period of time

How IT recruits individuals from other parts of the organization, and the rotational program that exists within CenturyLink

Innovation, the role that IT plays in innovation, and the methods of innovation within the organization

The on-demand resource model within IT, and the rationale behind the model

Growth through acquisition, and the role that IT plays in M&A at CenturyLink

The importance of gaining knowledge of the business, rather than just the technology

In this interview, Lee Congdon discusses principles two, Infrastructure, and four, IT & Business Partnerships, of World Class IT with Metis Strategy. Some of the topics discussed include

Red Hat IT’s priorities for the new fiscal year around business solution delivery, operations and process improvement, technology driven innovation, and capability growth

The close partnership IT has with product development as heavy users and beta testers of Red Hat products

The necessity of recognizing that IT is ultimately a service organization that should be business driven, and how establishing that culture earns trust from business partners

How he has organized his IT team to focus on innovation, most recently around telephony, consumer services, business intelligence, mobile technology, and developing a community support model

Eye on the trends:Consumerization of IT, rapid growth of mobile application and device capabilities, Software as a Service (SaaS) as a platform for faster and easier access to new technology, and the tremendous business opportunity for Red Hat in Cloud Computing and utility computing

In this interview, Patrick Thompson, Executive Vice President of Administration and Chief Information Officer of Amedisys, a $1.5 billion dollar healthcare company that provides home health and hospice services, discusses World Class IT principle one, People, principle two, Infrastructure, and principle four, IT-Business Partnerships, with Metis Strategy. Some of the topics discussed include:

How broader responsibilities enable elimination of inefficiencies and departmental silos

The unique role of a Business Systems Analyst

The importance of integrating IT infrastructure during M&A

ROI-driven IT investments and partnerships with Finance

Eye on the trends: Mobile agility and computing as it pertains to enabling clinicians in the field, and collaboration technologies as it relates to supporting the continual care of Amedisys’ patients

In this interview, Stephen Gillett, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Symantec, discusses World Class IT principle one, People, and principle four, IT and Business Partnerships, with Metis Strategy. Some of the topics discussed include:

His career progression to the CIO role and beyond

Stephen’s role in transforming the use of technology during his time at Starbucks

How Stephen leveraged his experiences with innovation in his role at Best Buy Digital

Stephen’s current experience as COO of Symantec

Stephen’s advice for CIOs and IT VPs who aspire to CIO Plus and Beyond CIO roles

Eye on the Trends: The transformation of IT’s role within the enterprise and the emergence of a new generation of CIOs

In this interview, Kevin Steele, Vice President of Technology of Cars.com discusses World Class IT Principle Three, Project & Portfolio Management, and Principle Four, IT & Business Partnerships. Some of the topics discussed include:

How he thinks about the experience for both the car buyer and the dealership

His role as Vice President of Technology

The way he collaborates with other areas of the organization

How he gauges success amongst the customers of his organization

The growth of mobility as a channel and how that has evolved the customer experience

His strategic planning process

How he works to understand emerging technology trends

The move from Waterfall to Agile development

Common elements from the multiple companies where he has worked within IT departments

How he has gone about shaping and instilling the culture of the organizations he has worked in

Eye on the Trends: Mobile, Autonomous vehicles, and the Big Data space

In this interview, Larry Bonfante discusses principle four, IT & Business Partnerships, of World Class IT with Metis Strategy. Some of the topics discussed include

His book called Lessons in IT Transformation and the importance of the “human side” of leadership: focusing on developing relationships, communicating effectively, marketing your ideas, supporting partners and clients, and leveraging the competitive advantage of your own people

How the US Tennis Association leverages technology for operational improvement, constituent communication, and driving top line growth

His priorities around minimizing utility costs in order to reinvest in IT an engine of innovation that drives revenue through their event management system, access control system, wireless kiosks, and licensing of USTA’s proprietary technology

The need for CIOs to adopt the business strategy and corporate mission as their own strategy, as opposed to creating an IT-specific strategy in a vacuum

Eye on the trends: The ability to un-tether the workforce from their desks and tap the consumer market through mobility, and everything as a service to free up capital for growth investment

In this interview, David McCue, Chief Information Officer of Computer Science Corporation (CSC), a $16 billion provider of information technology and professional services to governments and commercial enterprises. discusses World Class IT principle two, Infrastructure, principle three, Project Portfolio Management, and principle four, IT-Business Partnerships, with Metis Strategy. Some of the topics discussed include:

David’s role and responsibilities as Global CIO and Corporate Vice President

CSC’s three-legged approach to global governance

Standardizing around process, not technology, and deploying global solutions

Methods for effective best practice sharing

Approaching the role of CIO from a business perspective

Eye on the trends: Mobility, and how it enables individuals to be able to do anything, anytime and anywhere; analytics that enable seeing data in large amounts, and how it enables near real-time answers to business queries; and the importance of security in terms of protecting intellectual property so as to maintain a competitive advantage